toyota ts040-hybrid
The Toyota TS040 Hybrid boasts all wheel drive for the 2014 World Endurance Championship. Toyota

The 2014 season of the World Endurance Championship will begin on April 20th 2014 for the 6 Hours of Silverstone. Porsche officially unveiled its 919 Hybrid with full WEC racing livery earlier this month at the Geneva Motor Show. Now, Toyota, the final factory competitor against the reigning 24 of Le Mans champion Audi team, has lifted the veils from its 2014 Toyota TS040 Hybrid LMP1 prototype.

A great deal of improvements have been made to the 2014 Toyota TS040 Hybrid over last year's TS030. The most significant change is the newfound traction-- the new Toyota prototype now features an electric motor to the front axle for an all-wheel-drive hybrid drivetrain.

Powertrain-wise, the 2014 Audi LMP1 will feature a turbodiesel V6 while the Porsche 919 Hybrid features a Turbo V4. Toyota's hybrid powertrain, on the other hand, mates its electric motor to a V8 engine. The Toyota hybrid system features an Aisin electric motor and generator for the front axle as well as a Denso unit at the rear. Under decleeration, both Aisin and Denso units will apply braking force to harvest energy via a Nisshinbo super-capacity.

The chassis of the new 2014 Toyota TS040 Hybrid is developed by the TMG skunk works team based in Germany. This year, the new racing car will be 10 centimeters narrower to meet 2014 FIA WEC regulations. No doubt, aero improvements are expected as well. That said, the general profile of the latest Toyota prototype is similiar and recognizable to last year's model.

The Toyota factory drivers for 2014 include Alex Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre, Kazuki Nakajima, Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi and Stéphane Sarrazin. The Toyota TS040 Hybrid will make its first appearance at testing from March 28-29 at the Paul Ricard Circuit in France. Stay tuned as we learn more about the Toyota prototype in the days ahead!